21 Aug 03. Cubic Corporation (AMEX:CUB – News) and ECC International Corporation (AMEX:ECC – News), announced that they have signed a definitive merger agreement providing for the acquisition of ECC by Cubic. Under the terms of the agreement, Cubic has agreed to make a tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of ECC common stock at a price of $5.25 per share, which will, if completed, result in an aggregate consideration to ECC’s stockholders of approximately $42.3m. The offer is expected to commence on August 27, 2003 and expire, if not extended by Cubic, at midnight, Eastern Time on September 24, 2003. The tender offer will be followed by a merger in which Cubic will acquire, at the same per share price, the remaining shares of ECC not acquired in the tender offer.
20 Aug 03. Boeing (NYSE: BA – News is leading the team selected for the next stage of the Softcopy Search development program managed by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). The objective of the Softcopy Search development program is to demonstrate a technology solution that can be used to efficiently search and manage national and commercial digital imagery that has been collected from wide geographic areas. Using softcopy image search tools, NIMA and other government agencies will be able to easily manage, utilize and disseminate digital softcopy imagery in support of national security.
Aug 03. Radstone Technology announces IMPCC1, a 3U PMC carrier card in the PowerPact(tm)family. Offered as a companion card to the PowerPact IMP1A processor card, IMPCC1 allows integration of multiple PMCs into a 3U CompactPCI solution. The whole of Radstone’s market-leading range of PMCs and associated drivers can be utilised with IMPCC1. These provide facilities such as Gigabit Ethernet, StarFabric, FibreChannel, Advanced Graphics, Fast Serial, MIL-STD-1553, and many more. IMPCC1 is an active card, which provides a number of benefits. Its onboard bridge chip guarantees CompactPCI signal compatibility, no matter what PMC is plugged in.
25 Aug 03. Thales has sold its Thales Antennas unit to the U.K.’s Chelton Ltd, a unit of Cobham Ltd. Financial details weren’t disclosed. Thales Antennas specializes in the production and supply of tactical antennas and masts. Thales Antennas will now trade under its former name of Racal Antennas Ltd., and will target growth in its traditional defense activities, as well as retain its activities in the telecommunications equipment area.
27 Aug 03. The U.S. Army’s new Viper Strike precision munition, designed and built by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC), scored direct hits on nine out of nine targets during a successful flight demonstration conducted July 25-28. The weapon was dispensed from the Army’s Hunter UAV,also a Northrop Grumman product. Co-sponsored by the Army’s Precision Fires Rocket and Missile
Systems and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Project Offices, the drops
were performed at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
20 Aug 03. Boeing(NYSE: BA – News) announced the spin out of internally developed messaging security and compliance technology into a new company called MessageGate, Inc., based in Bellevue, Wash. Established through Boeing’s Chairman’s Innovation Initiative (CII), which provides employees an opportunity to develop new business ideas from company developed technologies and processes, MessageGate is based on a system that effectively blocks unwanted e-mail, including spam, pornography, and other malicious content, while ensuring that all valid business e-mail is delivered. The lead investor in MessageGate is Polaris Venture Partners, a partnership of experienced venture capital investors and technology executives who help entrepreneurs build market-leading companies in information technology and life sciences, with Boeing Ventures and Northwest Venture Associates also holding an equity stake.
22 Aug 03. The European Union Commission Friday approved a stake swap between EADS and N